The Richmond Fellowship Scotland - North Lanarkshire Housing Support Service Unit 2 Pickering House Netherton Road Netherton Wishaw ML2 0EQ Telephone: 01698 375 800 Type of inspection: Announced (short notice) Inspection completed on: 13 March 2018 Service provided by: The Richmond Fellowship Scotland Limited Service provider number: SP2004006282 Care service number: CS2004061321
About the service This Richmond Fellowship North Lanarkshire service offers a Housing Support service. The service is based in Wishaw and provides support to vulnerable people who live across both South and North Lanarkshire council areas. At the time of inspection the service was involved in supporting 75 individuals. Each service user has an individually tailored support plan designed to meet their specific needs. The service aims "to promote inclusion and maximise individual potential." The service believes that "Everyone is unique. Through our work, we give the people we support the opportunity to express their unique strengths, qualities, talents and abilities". What people told us We carried out telephone interviews due to adverse weather conditions with five people who use the service and three relatives. We received many positive comments in relation to the support offered and heard about the positive impact that this made to the individuals we spoke with. Comments indicated that as a direct result of the support provided, individuals engaged with community activities and had developed friendships meaning that they felt less isolated, had learned new or maintained daily skills which helped maintain levels of independence. We heard how the staff providing the support appear knowledgeable and have had training which means that they provide the right kind of support to individuals. Self assessment The service was not required to submit a self assessment in this inspection year. From this inspection we graded this service as: Quality of care and support Quality of staffing Quality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good not assessed What the service does well We recognise that there have been significant changes within the service since the previous inspection. The registered manager has changed and the trial relating to staff restructure and roles has been discontinued in the preceding weeks of the inspection being carried out. Early results show that this has helped the staff of all levels to re-focus on identifying the best ways to meet the wishes and preferences of people using the service. page 2 of 7
Feedback from people who use the service indicated that there are high levels of satisfaction with the supports provided. We heard that there have been many positive outcomes including improvements to individual's health and sense of wellbeing. The supports have resulted in individuals developing interests, engaging in their local community, improved confidence and establishing friendships. Comments received also revealed that the service is flexible and reliable. This means that people using the service (with advance notice) can have supports to help them attend appointments with the support of staff who know them well. We looked at plans of support and found that step by step guides contained a very good level of detail which guide staff on the best methods and approaches to use when supporting individuals. This means that people who use the service can be assured that a consistent approach aligned to individual's preferences are used when providing supports. The service reflects within support plans the best methods to promote and maintain communications between individuals and staff. Staff are pro-active in referring individuals who receive support to professional agencies when they notice changes in their health and wellbeing. This means that interventions are sought in an attempt to keep people who use the service as well as they can be. We could see that the service works jointly with people who use the service to identify the traits and characteristics of staff that they would wish to support them. Feedback from interviews with people who use the service and relatives indicates that the service generally gets this right and positive working relationships have been established. Accidents and incidents are recorded and the organisation has a system to check the nature of the events and reflect remedial actions taken to help protect individuals. We checked and found that there are audits in place to ensure that financial records and medication records of the people who use the service are in balance with expenditure and administration of medication records. This means that the service can identify and address any discrepancies at an early stage. The manager has focused on restructuring the service by reviewing the staff and teams and looking at roles and responsibilities in order that the service can be more focused on meeting the needs of people who use the service. We interviewed staff and looked at records and concluded that there are very good training and development opportunities using a blended approach of e-learning, face to face training, team meetings, supervisions and appraisal sessions. This means that staff are kept up to date with developments within the service and work to keep their skills up to date for the benefit of people receiving support. Staff observations are carried out by senior support staff which is a good method of checking staff practice, identifying any development needs and ensuring people who use the service are getting the supports as expected. Feedback from interviews with staff indicates that staff feel involved with the on-going development of the service and are clear of expectations of them in fulfilling their role. Staff demonstrated commitment in meeting the needs of people who use the service during the recent period of adverse weather conditions. page 3 of 7
What the service could do better We looked at how the service handles complaints. We found that records in relation to complaints needed developed to fully outline when the complaint was received, how the complaint was investigated, what was the resulting outcome and actions taken. The service also needs to develop records in relation to how the person raising the complaint was informed of the findings or actions taken to help minimise recurrence. We shall make a recommendation in connection with this area - see recommendation 1. We found that the service had very recently introduced support plan material which will better capture the resulting outcomes for each person who uses the service. We shared that there could be improvements made with the content of the support plans to ensure that they are fully reflective of the current needs of each person who is in receipt of support. We shall make a recommendation in connection with this area - see recommendation 2. We found high levels of satisfaction with how the service supports individual people and heard about the flexibility and responsiveness of the service on an individual basis. However, records relating to how the service captures feedback from people who use the service was limited. We checked and found that the new manager of the service had identified this as an area which requires improvement and has included this within the development plan of the service. We shall monitor progress in future inspections. We looked at records relating to notifications that we had been alerted to by the service and examined other incidents. We concluded that there is a development need for some of the support staff in relation to revisiting the values of the organisation and ensuring that every person using the service receives this in a respectful and dignified manner. We shall make a recommendation in connection with this area. See recommendation 3. We examined the recruitment process used with staff who had been recruited in the past year. We found that there is a need to adopt a consistent approach ensuring that all pre-employment checks are completed and recorded and updating the associated recruitment policy to follow best practice. Having a robust recruitment process can help protect people who use the service. We shall make a recommendation in connection with this area - see recommendation 4. We discussed what resources may be useful in taking staff forward and highlighted 'The Step Into Leadership' resource that the service may wish to consider for helping to develop the Senior Support Workers in their role. Requirements Number of requirements: 0 Recommendations Number of recommendations: 4 1. The service provider should ensure there are full records which detail complaints received, investigations carried out, findings, actions identified and communications with the complainant to inform them what the service will do to address the issues. This is to comply with NCS Housing Support Standard 3.1 Management and Arrangements page 4 of 7
2. The service should ensure that support plans of each person who uses the service is up to date and accurately reflects their current needs with associated risk assessments accurately reflecting their abilities. This is to comply with NCS Housing Support Standard 4 Housing Support Planning. 3. The service provider should provide re-fresher training to staff on the service's core values with regards to showing dignity and respect to service users and each other at all times. This is to comply with National Care Standards, Housing Support, The main principles. 4. The service provider should ensure that the policy and procedure should be updated and aligned to best practice guidance Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment. This is to comply with NCS, Housing Support, Standard 3 Management and Arrangements Complaints There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com. Inspection and grading history Date Type Gradings 25 Feb 2016 Announced (short notice) Care and support 19 Mar 2015 Announced (short notice) Care and support 6 - Excellent 12 Nov 2013 Announced (short notice) Care and support page 5 of 7
Date Type Gradings 27 Nov 2012 Unannounced Care and support 3 - Adequate 3 - Adequate 3 - Adequate 23 Jun 2010 Announced Care and support 2 Dec 2009 Announced Care and support 10 Dec 2008 Announced Care and support page 6 of 7
To find out more This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our website. Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action when things aren't good enough. Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service. You can also read more about our work online at www.careinspectorate.com Contact us Care Inspectorate Compass House 11 Riverside Drive Dundee DD1 4NY enquiries@careinspectorate.com 0345 600 9527 Find us on Facebook Twitter: @careinspect Other languages and formats This report is available in other languages and formats on request. Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas. page 7 of 7